Criticism, Reflections, Reviews Patrick Zapien Criticism, Reflections, Reviews Patrick Zapien

“With eyes like ripening fruit”: Manoucher Yektai at Karma

It’s not true that the world is ending — if anything, it already has. And yet life continues, alive in its death. These thoughts — speculations — give a perfunctory account of the work of the late painter and poet Manoucher Yektai, a member of the New York School whose first solo show in the city since 1984 opened at Karma two weeks ago.

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Writing, Illuminations William Freind Writing, Illuminations William Freind

Amanda Gorman, The Typescript, and Big Houses

The ostensible cause was Kent’s Emily Post-Avant piece critiquing Amanda Gorman’s poem for the Biden inauguration, which an editor at The Typescript said was “antithetical to our values.” I’ve sometimes disagreed with Kent, both in private exchanges and on the pages of Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, but I see nothing particularly offensive about the Gorman column, with the possible exception of calling Lady Gaga a “narcissistic bitch.”

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